Hastings Panelists Selected

WASHINGTON -- The congressional inquiry into possible impeachment of U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings has been turned over to one of the most liberal and civil libertarian panels in Congress.

The politically sensitive inquiry will be handled by the House subcommittee on criminal justice, chaired by Rep. John Conyers, a black liberal known for his support of defendants` rights.

Hastings

The subcommittee, dominated by liberal Democrats, may be the most compatible congressional panel possible for an outspoken judge such as Hastings, who has denounced Reagan administration policies while backing civil rights and liberties.

``My reaction is: marvelous,`` Hastings, Florida`s first black federal judge, said on Thursday. ``But my reaction would have been `marvelous` if they had decided on a select committee or any other subcommittee.``

Hastings, who lives in Lauderhill and hears cases in Miami, said he had not seen Conyers since a 40-minute meeting about 23 years ago.

``I know his outstanding reputation as a congressperson and an Afro- American,`` Hastings said when contacted in Daytona Beach. ``But I have not had dinner with John. I have not talked with him on the telephone or anything.``

``It doesn`t make a hill of beans of difference of his being black. What does matter is that he`s a solid congressman who knows his way inside and outside the Washington Beltway,`` Hastings said.

Conyers promised a ``fair and impartial`` consideration of the call for Hastings` impeachment.

He told United Press International that his panel`s study of the case ``will be thorough and complete and will be carried out as promptly as possible.``

House Judiciary Chairman Peter Rodino, D-N.J., offered no explanation Thursday of why he had designated Conyers` subcommittee to make the inquiry.

That decision reversed an earlier plan to name an ad hoc select committee and bypassed the subcommittee that normally has jurisdiction over impeachment matters, the subcommittee on courts, civil liberties and the admin

istration of justice, chaired by Rep. Robert Kastenmeier, D-Wis.

Kastenmeier had proposed a select committee to take the time burden off his subcommittee.

Rep. E. Clay Shaw, a former member of the Conyers subcommittee and a current member of the full Judiciary Committee, speculated that the select committee idea had been abandoned because ``it may have been difficult to find people to man it.``

Impeachment inquiries are politically touchy, said Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale. ``Members of Congress are political animals, so obviously they`re sensitive to political issues,`` he said.

The Hastings issue was dumped in the lap of Congress on Tuesday when the Judicial Conference of the United States, the chief policy-making body of the judicial branch of the federal government, certified that ``impeachment charges may be warranted.`` The accusations stem from criminal charges of conspiracy to accept a bribe -- charges of which Hastings was acquitted by a jury in 1983.

``I don`t like the procedure,`` Shaw said. ``We don`t have the expertise, time or investigative ability to put somebody on trial who has already been acquitted.``

The impeachment procedure could end with the subcommittee`s review of the case. Nothing requires that the full Judiciary Committee consider it.